Jones lived at the corner of Worster Avenue and Augusta Street, about a block from the grassy 1 1/2-acre lot where he was found. The neighborhood is west of Darling Stadium.

Bingman said police received a call about 11:30 p.m. from a neighbor whose son discovered a man's body on the grass behind Corrine Nicklen's house near the end of Shell Road.

"He had not been dead very long," Bingman said.

Homicide detectives worked through the night searching for clues about the death. Yellow tape, used to seal off a crime scene, criss-crossed Nicklen's yard and even stretched across Thornette and England Avenue, closing them to traffic.

"We're just running down every possible lead," Bingman said. Police stopped a man outside a nearby 7-Eleven, at Armistead Avenue and Settlers Landing Road, about 6 this morning. Detectives questioned the man, then let him go.

Geneva Brown, Nicklen's next-door neighbor, said her daughter, Renia, came to her door about 11:30 p.m. Thursday and told her there was someone laying in Nicklen's yard. Then Brown's 24-year-old son, Kelton, and his twin sister, Karen, went down the street to investigate, Mrs. Brown said.

After Kelton saw the body, "He came running around the corner, waving his hands in the air and yelling, `Momma, Momma, call the police. There's a man in the yard with his faced messed up,'" Mrs. Brown recounted this morning.

Although Mrs. Brown said she did not know Jones well, she would occasionally see him walking along Shell Road and did so on Thursday, though the two did not speak. "He was friendly. He would stop and talk to me if I was in the yard," she said.

Corrine Nicklen, who saw the body, said the man was sprawled on his back with his bloodied face turned to one side. He was wearing jeans, a red knit shirt under a dark jacket and white tennis shoes. She said the blood on his face appeared to be fresh.

"I haven't been able to sleep all night. I'm nervous and upset that it happened in my hard and I didn't hear anything," said Nicklen, a nurse's aide.